Deep in the dense forest, the light was filtered by layers of tree canopies into an eerie dark green.
Leo and Hisoka walked one after the other, their footsteps falling on the ground covered with rotting leaves, making a slight rustling sound.
The dark red monsters surrounding them—like silent sheepdogs—kept a distance of about twenty meters, neither attacking nor allowing them to deviate from their path.
"They seem to have intelligence~"
Hisoka walked in front, saying this without turning his head, his voice carrying his habitual levity.
"It should be that someone is manipulating them from behind."
Leo replied, his gaze sweeping over the looming dark red silhouettes in the tree shadows on both sides.
"We'll know in a moment. Looking at the situation, we're almost at the end."
Brighter light shone ahead.
The two walked for about five more minutes when the dense forest suddenly receded, and the view before them opened up.
This was a clearing in the forest the size of a soccer field.
The ground was level, as if it had been cleared by someone.
In the center of the clearing were scattered several huge grayish-white rocks, their surfaces covered with dark green moss.
And at the edge of the clearing—
There were dense dark red figures.
At least fifty monsters stood silently like sculptures, their eyeless faces uniformly "staring" at the two who had emerged from the forest.
The fishy, sweet smell was so intense here that it was nauseating, and the air seemed to have become viscous.
Leo and Hisoka stopped.
The monsters behind them stopped advancing and began to slowly retreat, disappearing into the forest they had come from, completely cutting off their retreat.
The encirclement was complete.
Just as the two were preparing to make a move, the group of monsters on the other side of the clearing suddenly parted to the sides, clearing a path.
A figure slowly walked out from the depths.
It was a young boy.
He looked no more than sixteen years old, his stature much shorter and thinner than a normal Qilajie Clan member, about one meter seven.
He was wearing a simple set of coarse cloth clothes.
But the most striking thing was his eyes.
Pure white, without pupils, without irises, like two polished milky white jade stones.
His waist-length hair was as bright red as blood, shimmering with an eerie luster in the dim light.
His complexion was pale to the point of being almost transparent, his lips were devoid of color, and his whole person exuded an aura of dead silence that was completely inconsistent with his age.
The boy held a scepter in his hand.
The scepter was pitch black, its material neither wood nor metal, and its surface was carved with unrecognizable ancient patterns.
At the top of the staff was embedded a dark red gemstone, about the size of a fist, currently emitting a faint but chilling, eerie light.
Hisoka's golden pupils constricted slightly, and the corners of his mouth curled into an excited arc.
"Hmm~ It seems this is the mastermind."
Leo frowned deeply.
His combat intuition was sounding a frantic alarm—the aura emitted by the boy in front of him was ten times more dangerous than all the surrounding monsters combined.
Korte Ginnas Qilajie stopped ten meters in front of the monster group.
He looked at the two with his pure white eyes, his voice calm without a ripple.
"Are you from the Hunter Association? You came for Karm, right?"
Leo nodded.
"That's right. Can you tell me, is Karm okay? The mummified corpses on the ship, were they all your doing?"
"They are all dead."
Korte's voice remained calm.
"That's right, it was all my doing."
The moment his voice fell, Leo's entire body's Nen burst forth!
The state of "Ken" instantly covered his entire body, his muscles tensed like a bow.
Between Hisoka's fingers, three playing cards quietly appeared, Nen wrapped around them, emitting a dangerous hum.
But Korte did not act immediately.
He was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly spoke.
"Do you want to hear my story? But before that..."
He raised his right arm and waved it gently.
"You must first prove that you have the qualifications to survive."
The encirclement instantly contracted!
More than fifty infected Dragons simultaneously let out low roars and pounced from all directions!
They had no eyes, but their perception was exceptionally keen, their attack angles tricky and vicious, and their coordination was as seamless as a single entity!
Leo and Hisoka fought back-to-back.
Hisoka made the first move.
His figure rushed forward like a ghost, sliding through the gap between two pouncing monsters, his hands waving repeatedly, the playing cards turning into deadly blades!
Chi! Chi! Chi!
Three cards precisely cut into the connection point of the three monsters' necks—that was the weakness they had discovered.
The monsters wailed and fell to the ground, but more monsters filled the gap.
"Quite a large number~"
Hisoka chuckled, but his movements became increasingly fierce.
His movement technique was eerie and unpredictable, weaving through the monster group as if walking in an empty space, and every time he struck, a monster fell.
But the monsters' regenerative ability was extremely strong; unless the brain or cervical spine was completely destroyed, they could quickly crawl back up.
Leo's fighting style was more direct.
He did not dodge.
Facing the pouncing monsters, he chose to meet them head-on!
The first monster opened its huge mouth to bite at his head.
Leo did not retreat but advanced, his right fist blasting out like a cannonball, striking first despite being second, hitting the monster's jaw squarely!
Crack!
The jawbone shattered!
The monster wailed as it was sent flying backward, but before it landed, Leo had already caught up and stomped on its head—
Pfft!
The head exploded.
The second and third ones pounced simultaneously.
Leo attacked with both hands, both fists coming out at once!
Nen was compressed to the extreme on his fists, and every strike carried the immense power to split mountains and crack rocks!
Bang! Bang!
The chests of the two monsters caved in simultaneously, their ribs shattered, and they were sent flying backward, knocking over three or four of their kind behind them.
Leo strode forward, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, severed limbs flying wherever he passed!
His combat efficiency was terrifyingly high.
No flashy techniques were needed, just pure strength, speed, and precise strikes to weak points.
Every pouncing monster was killed within three moves, without exception.
Seven minutes later.
In the center of the clearing, more than twenty monster corpses had piled up around Leo and Hisoka.
The prompt for Life Energy kept coming...
[Rank: 48 (31%) → (42%)]
The dark red blood soaked the soil, and the fishy, sweet smell was so thick it couldn't be dispersed.
The remaining monsters stopped attacking and slowly retreated behind Korte, crouching low and emitting threatening low growls.
Korte's pure white eyes stared at the two, and for the first time, a subtle expression appeared on his face—a trace of surprise, which then returned to dead silence.
"It seems your strength is not bad."
He spoke slowly.
"You are qualified to hear my story. Do you want to hear it?"
Leo and Hisoka exchanged a glance.
Although the battle just now had eliminated quite a few monsters, both of their Nen consumption was not small.
Korte's initiative to tell a story played right into their hands—they needed time to recover.
They also happened to need to understand what exactly was happening here, why this boy wanted to kill them all, and what the hidden circumstances were.
"Hmm-hmm~ I'd be happy to hear the details."
Hisoka said with a smile, but the playing cards between his fingers were not put away.
Leo also nodded.
"Please go ahead."
Korte was silent for a moment.
Then, he began to tell it.
His voice was calm, as if he were telling someone else's story.